Five Best Practices For Onboarding Volunteers

Getting enough volunteers into schools to support staff and students is an increasing challenge for many school systems. This challenge is amplified when the volunteer onboarding process is complex. If a district requires background checks for volunteers, it can further complicate onboarding due to the necessary communication and scheduling. However, there are ways to simplify this process for district staff, school staff, and volunteers, potentially increasing both the number of volunteers and their ongoing engagement in schools. Here are 5 best practices to consider:

1. Register First

Create a record for each volunteer through online registration/application. This allows tracking of each volunteer’s approval status throughout the onboarding process, even if immediate approval isn’t possible. This also enables automated communication with the volunteer to inform them of status changes, and automated notification to school staff once a volunteer is approved.

2. Automate Screening

Depending on district or state guidelines regarding volunteer screening, automating that step of onboarding may be possible. If background checks are conducted online but have to be submitted manually, the time-saving benefits of automation are lost. Integration with online screening services is possible and can accelerate the volunteer approval process, since 70-90% of the time screening submissions return ‘clear’ results.

3. Get HR Involved

Human Resources is often occupied with employee-related matters. However, if HR is responsible for or involved in running or reviewing volunteer background checks, their early involvement is crucial to finding ways to simplify the onboarding process. HR can save significant time if they focus solely on volunteers whose background results require further review. Automating HR notifications when review is needed, and automating alerts to volunteers about their background results can further improve efficiency.

4. Think Renewal not Re-register

Volunteering should be viewed as a continuing engagement. That means volunteers should be treated as long-term contributors, rather than clearing the database at the end of each school year and requiring them to re-register. If volunteers have an account that they can update, the renewal process should be automated to reverify their volunteer details and re-screen them at the ‘anniversary’ of their last background check. This helps to keep volunteers engaged longer term, and allows your school system to track their level of engagement over time.

5. Use Tiered Approvals

Revisit the volunteer policy and guidelines and consider establishing different levels of approval based on the nature of the activity. Volunteering in a classroom or library for ‘supervised activity’ might not require the same level of screening as going on a field trip or working as a mentor off-campus.

These best practices collectively highlight the need for a sophisticated online volunteer management system to streamline the onboarding process, automate various steps to manage the workload of the volunteer and HR teams, and inform both volunteers and staff about the volunteer’s status in the onboarding process and their approval status.

Willing to take a short survey about how your school system currently onboards volunteers? Should not take more than 1 – 2 minutes. Visit https://bit.ly/onboard-vols